Artist/Musician | Connector of dots…
KOKAYI is a GRAMMY-nominated musician, improvisational vocalist, producer, author, speaker, and multidisciplinary fine artist. A Guggenheim Fellow for Music Composition—the first emcee to receive the honor—he is also a Halcyon Arts and Nicholson Arts Fellow, and a TEDxWDC presenter. He appears on over 60 recordings spanning jazz, hip hop, rock, and R&B, and is the author of You Are Ketchup: and Other Fly Music Tales (Globe Pequot), described by The Washington Post as “a megadose of straight advice from a muso-mentor who’s been there.”
Kokayi has taught and facilitated workshops on vocal improvisation and creativity at institutions worldwide, is a longtime collaborator and Board member with OneBeat, and has served as a U.S. State Department music emissary. As Chief Ideator and co-curator of BeatsnBeans, he explores the intersections of creativity, coffee culture, and reimagined creative spaces.
A committed advocate for DC’s indigenous music, Kokayi served in multiple leadership roles within the Recording Academy, including Chapter President and National Trustee, where he helped establish go-go as an official genre within the Regional Roots category—cementing its legacy within music history.
Artist Statement
I am a multidisciplinary artist based in DC who interprets and crafts narratives using analog and digital technologies—photography, sound, film, performance, and whatever else I can get my hands on. My work reclaims the detritus systemically inherited by people of the African Diaspora, transforming it into participatory experiences that perpetuate the intangible cultural heritage of Black Americans. Through manipulated materials and stories rooted in Black, African, and American life and folklore, I create cultural touchpoints that explore identity and belonging. True to Black cultural traditions, I remix the discarded and overlooked to craft new narratives—redefining ideas of masculinity, alterity, divination, and death, and contributing to an evolving Black folklore.
AUTHOR
YOU ARE KETCHUP
BACKBEAT PRESS/GLOBE PEQUOT 2022
Music artists, as perceived by the music industry, are akin to a condiment—to be easily replicated, sold in high volume, and enjoyed by the masses. The message is blunt, honest, and necessary. Implicit in it is the reality of an ever-changing music landscape that requires the artists to adapt, and with integrity, lest they become forgotten. It's this essential idea that the Grammy-nominated artist and creative consultant Kokayi shares in You Are Ketchup.
With a harmonious blend of narrative and advice, DC native Kokayi walks readers through the golden age of hip hop to the current day, dispensing hard-earned lessons and illuminations from decades of producing and performing music. Kokayi is a teacher inasmuch as he is a musician and now writes for emerging artists yet to achieve success and veteran artists who might have once had it but are not out. Using stories from life and career as a vehicle, Kokayi covers a range of topics, including art as a commodity and advice about defining your artistic community, knowing when your art is ready to level up, finding a formula that works, distinguishing your art from others, and more.
In a music world where an artist's career can too easily become a tale of the past, You Are Ketchup arrives as essential reading for the multitude of creatives hungry for the wisdom and knowledge of a successful insider.
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